True North 2019, the follow-up to Communitech’s inaugural 2018 "Tech for Good" themed conference, has come and gone, and this year’s "Age of Relearning" themed event promised – and delivered – an in-depth and inspiring examination on the emerging world of work and changing nature of education in the AI era.
Reflecting on the event’s sophomore year, there was a lot to take in. Here are three takeaways that captured our attention:
1.Adaptation is Key: Thomas Friedman, award-winning New York Times foreign affairs columnist and best-selling author of "Thank You For Being Late: An Optimist’s Guide to Thriving in the Age of Accelerations", kicked off Day 1 with a keynote that laid out the shocking advancement of technology since 2007. Friedman’s main thesis expressed that tech is evolving faster than we can adapt, and this acceleration has resulted in the invalidity of the traditional "learn-work" model and has established the need to be life-long learners. He stressed that in today’s society, technology is advancing faster than the average human being, resulting in multiple changes in technology within a single generation. Jobs that exist today will not exist in two decades, and therefore we need to pivot from asking children the age-old question of "what do you want to be when you grow up" –because it probably won’t exist - into "how do you want to be when you grow up." Friedman posits that in a time of unprecedented technological advancement, traditional values, strong families and healthy communities are the key to a sustainable future, and we need to teach the next generation to slow down and express their humanity. In a world that is moving too fast, things that are old and slow – parenting, teaching, caring and inclusion – matter more than ever.
2.Schools should be a Sandbox: While Friedman espoused that the traditional "learn-work" social model is changing, Future Design School Founder and CEO Sarah Prevette began her keynote with the notion that the traditional model of school is also in the midst of a transformation. Agreeing that we should no longer ask children "what" they want to be, Prevette states that we should ask them if they know "how" to become anything they want to be, and reiterated on a point previously made by Friedman when she expressed that 65% of primary school kids will hold jobs that do not even exist yet. Emphasizing that students have to be prepared for a brave new world where they will have to figure out their own employment, Prevette theorizes that schools should act as more of a collective incubator, a "sandbox" where students can experiment, take risks and tackle real-world problems in order to find their creative genius. Entrepreneurship is not just for kids interested in business - it is the future - and Prevette highlighted the importance of encouraging creative confidence, resourcefulness, empathy and the entrepreneurial spirit, as these attributes will be the new skills needed for work.
3.We Need a Reskilling Revolution: William Zhou, CEO of Chalked, began his address by agreeing with Friedman that in order to be successful in this new age of acceleration, innovation and technology, existing workers need to keep learning. Jobs and careers of the past and present are not indicative of careers of the future, and there exists an escalating need for companies, governments, education institutions and communities to work together to prepare potential and existing workers for advances in technology and provide workers with the skills and confidence to implement, operate and manage these emerging technologies. Zhou reminded the audience that during what has been coined the "fourth industrial revolution", where whatever can be digitized is being digitized, people are still the future. While AI is expected to displace 175 million jobs in the next decade, if we fill in the skills gaps in the workforce, people will adapt and continue to be relevant in the age of AI.
Over the past decade, large scale investments in robotics, automation, IoT technologies and the digital mine have resulted in a unprecedented transformation in the global mining industry and it is becoming increasingly important for mining executives to align their workforce training with tomorrow’s industry needs. At the same time, mining executives have recognized that younger workers have different learning styles and expectations than previous generations. Visit www.norcat.org/studio/ to explore how NORCAT is implementing new technology-enabled methods of learning in order to create a new world of training to engage, educate and strengthen the future and existing workforce for the brave new digital world.